Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder related the young schoolgirl.

Stafford was last seen outside Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock, Ont., a small city west of Toronto. Her decomposing remains were found on July 19, 2009 more than two hours away in a field near Mount Forest, Ont.

According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the onus is on the Crown to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt because an accused is always presumed innocent.

During the Crown’s case, prosecutors called 61 witnesses, including Rafferty’s former girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic.

McClintic, 21, is currently serving a life sentence for Stafford’s death after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in April 2010.

She testified that she lured the child away from the school that day at Rafferty’s urging.

The three then drove out of the city in his 2003 Honda Civic to buy drugs, a hammer and garbage bags, before stopping at a rural field near Mount Forest, Ont.

There, McClintic says Stafford was repeatedly raped, which made her snap because it brought back memories of her own alleged childhood molestation. She then killed the girl and buried her in a nearby rock pile with Rafferty’s help.

Court also heard that Stafford’s DNA was later found in Rafferty’s car and on his gym bag.

His defence has tried to portray their client as a dupe who was a horrified spectator in the abduction and murder of the blonde-haired girl. They deny the girl had been raped, a fact that cannot be corroborated with DNA evidence because her remains had been so decomposed by the time she was found.

Stafford’s cause of death was multiple blows, most likely caused by a claw hammer.